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Musician Jared Denhard plays at local events in Howard County such as weddings and funerals. In the 1990s he put together instrumental music for the pope at the time at Camden Yards. He also plays in O’Malley’s March, a celtic rock band, with Governor Martin O’Malley. His experiences in that band vary from playing locally to playing at the Democratic Convention.

Freshman Marisol Pesquera volunteers every summer at a camp for children in Puerto Rico. She thinks that students on campus would benefit from the volunteer opportunities the campus provides.(Photo by: Emily Cunningham / TU student)

In reaction to small numbers of student volunteers, Towson University is hoping to enhance participation by providing more community service opportunities on and off campus.

“You as college students have so much to give and so much to learn,” Towson University 2008 graduate and current Coordinator of Community Service Corinne DeRoberts said. “I just don’t think it [volunteering] is part of the culture.”

DeRoberts’ position as Coordinator of Community Service is the first of its kind offered on campus. Applications are now being accepted for five new Service Leaders positions on campus. Their roles will include planning First Fridays, a day of service where students from different groups travel outside of campus to help in the community as well as planning other service events.

DeRoberts hopes that these positions will inspire more students to serve.

“It [volunteering] gives you different experiences that others may not have on their resume,” she said. “It can show your commitment and dedication to something.”

Journalist Karen Tumulty writes political articles for the Washington Post and has been seen on CNN and MSNBC. She shared her thoughts about social media. (Photo courtesy of: Karen Tumulty)

Karen Tumulty, a political correspondent for the Washington Post for almost three years, uses social media to showcase her work and the work of others. Before her position at the Post, she worked at TIME Magazine for 14 years and for 13 at the LA Times.

In an article for the Post, she wrote “…the fact that the president is now incorporating hashtags into his speeches shows how Twitter is redefining the means by which politicians shape, distribute and refine their messages. Campaigning in 140 characters or less provides almost instant feedback, which campaigns use to figure out what is working and what isn’t, even before it hits the blogs, much less the traditional media outlet.”

Below, she reveals her thoughts about how social media is redefining journalism today.

Nick DiMarco works the night shift during Hurricane Irene from his apartment in Lutherville, Md. Patch editors were on-call for breaking news throughout Baltimore County during the harrowing storm. (Photo by: Jennifer Tanko)

Towson alumni and journalist Nick DiMarco adapts to the continually evolving world of journalism by optimizing his use of social networking sites.

“You can have all the skills in the world, but you have to be ahead of the curve,” he said. “The game has changed. You have to move forward with your audience.”

Recently, a columnist for The Omaha World-Herald tracked down an almost unreal photograph to its original source after it had become an internet sensation.

Because many things these days are altered with photo-editing software, he wanted to get to the original source to get the story behind the photo. Simply by looking at the photograph, finding information from social media websites such as Reddit and traveling to the source, he uncovered who had taken the photo and the events that had happened that day from her account. Matthew Hanson’s column shows what steps he took to finally getting to the bottom of the story.

Hello internet world! My name is Emily Cunningham and I am currently a freshman mass communication major at Towson University. As a staff writer for the university’s newspaper, The Towerlight, I have written about some pretty cool events happening on campus. And as a PR manager for Love is Louder, I have seen this student group emerge as an effective and powerful presence within the university.

If I could be anywhere at this very moment, it would be Disney World (as you can probably tell from the picture). I think it would be super nifty if there were Fast Passes in real life. There is still some doubt in my mind that the Harry Potter series is not a non-fiction narrative of the events J.K. Rowling encountered while in London. Any day can be made better with reruns of Whose Line is It Anyway. The Oxford Comma is essential to life as we know it today. I firmly believe that Josh Groban’s voice will one day be the sole cause of world peace. And after reading Stephen King’s novel 11/22/63, I want to travel back to the 1950s, but only for a little while because, well, women’s rights and all.